Emotion Focused Skills Training Video Series

Joanne Dolhanty and Anne Hilde Vassbø Hagen
Part of Series IX: Children and Adolescents

You can now purchase this video where Joanne and Anne Hilde take you through an EFST session with a parent and explain as they go.


I eat my feelings

Emotion Focused Podcast with
Dr. Lou Cooper

‘Yummy foods and starvation are like taking a good strong dose of pain medicine.’ Joanne Dolhanty talks about an emotion focused perspective to understanding eating disorders.


Parenting: Who’s the boss?

Emotion Focused Podcast with
Dr. Lou Cooper

Are you emotionally a lion or a lamb? And how can you best use your characteristic way of being as a parent? Joanne Dolhanty describes an Emotion Focused approach to parenting.


Emotion Focused Skills Training for Parents
A Guide for Clinicians

Dr. Joanne Dolhanty, Vanja Hjelmseth, Bente Austbø & Anne Hilde Vassbø Hagen

$59.99 USD

This book gives a complete overview of the theory, practice, and research of an emotion-centered, humanistic approach to supporting the parents of individuals who struggle with any mental health challenge. The book conveys an unyielding belief in parents’ motivation and ability to heal the parent-child relationship and help their child (young, adolescent, or adult child) through their struggles. Drawing on the most current understanding of emotions and human development, the book clearly outlines a central role for parents in treating and preventing mental health difficulties in their families. The many examples provide a vivid and emotionally moving portrait of the power of parents if we only support them to find their way.


View the Facebook Live Event from the book launch


Angry Kids, Angry Parents:
Understanding and Working with Anger in Your Family

Anne Hilde Vassbø Hagen, cand.psychol, and Joanne Dolhanty, PhD

$21.99 USD

Psychologists Anne Hilde Vassbø Hagen and Joanne Dolhanty explain everything you need to know about your child’s anger and how to manage it.

Anger can be normal and healthy when it enables us to stand up for ourselves and defend against injustice. However, it can also lead to aggression—even violence—while also hiding other, more vulnerable emotions. For instance, an angry child may be hiding embarrassment, shame, disappointment, sadness, loneliness, or fear. As a parent, it is your job to help your child understand their anger, express it in an appropriate way, and address the underlying need.

In Angry Kids, Angry Parents you will learn how to respond to your child’s anger in a sensitive and productive way that validates their feelings, addresses their needs, and teaches them to manage their own anger. It can be nerve-wracking to watch your child explode in rage. This book will teach you how to stay calm and protect your boundaries.

Supported by years of psychological research and therapeutic practice, the strategies in this practical, compassionate book will help any parent who struggles with their child’s anger.

* Use Promo Code APA25 to save 25% and enjoy free domestic shipping.


Emotionsfokussiertes Skilltraining für Eltern und Familien (EFST)

Ein innovativer Ansatz für die Begleitung von Eltern (nicht nur) psychisch kranker Kinder: Dr. Julika Swack and Dr. Joanne Dolhanty


The effects of emotion-focused skills training on parental mental health, emotion regulation and self-efficacy: Mediating processes between parents and children

Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, DOI: reports the outcome data.


Efficacy of Emotion-Focused Parenting Programs for Children’s Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms: A Randomized Clinical Study

Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, DOI: reports the outcome data.


Parenthood – Lost and Found

Frontiers in Psychology reports on the qualitative analysis of interviews with a small subset of the parents who participated in the study.


Effectiveness of Emotion Focused Skills Training for Parents: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial in Specialist Mental Health Care

BMC Psychology project EFST (Emotion Focused Skills Training) in specialist health care in Norway.


Emotion Focused Skills Training for Parents With Anxious Children. A Pilot Study.

Journal of Marital and Family Therapy reports on remission in children from anxiety diagnosis when parents receive Emotion Focused Skills Training.